Who is Eutychus?

The title for this sermon blog is a little self-deprecating joke from the book of Acts:

Acts 20:7   On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight.  8 There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were meeting.  9 A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, began to sink off into a deep sleep while Paul talked still longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell to the ground three floors below and was picked up dead.  10 But Paul went down, and bending over him took him in his arms, and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.”  11 Then Paul went upstairs, and after he had broken bread and eaten, he continued to converse with them until dawn; then he left.  12 Meanwhile they had taken the boy away alive and were not a little comforted.

I hope I don’t bore anyone to physical harm like Paul did, but as I post all these seas of words, I can’t help but think about poor Eutychus. Thankfully, in spite of Paul’s “knock-out” preaching, he still obviously got the message across to his audience. That’s comforting for me and for any preacher to remember.